As a child, Jana Christopher would spend hours trying to discern patterns in the wallpaper and on the floor of her bedroom. So perhaps it was destiny that as an adult she would spend hours doing much the same thing — only now she stares at scientific manuscripts trying to find evidence of unkosher images.
Christopher, an editorial assistant at FEBS — for Federation of European Biochemical Societies — Letters in Heidelberg, Germany, is one of a small but growing number of research integrity czars whom publishers are employing to help police their pages. Just last month, Science Advances named Philip Yeagle as scientific integrity officer. Yeagle, a deputy editor of the journal, which is published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, acts as a liaison between institutions and the editors and ensures “that we are dealing with situations in a consistent fashion over time,” he told STAT by email. “Scientific integrity issues can become quite complex.”
